CHICAGO FAIR WRECKED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18580, 14 December 1934, Page 16

CHICAGO FAIR WRECKED

CLOSING NIGHT SCENES POLICEMEN PUT IN LAKE CHICAGO, Nov. 1. Wild rioting! by Hallow-e’en revellers brought the great Chicago World’s Fair to an end in the early hours of this morning. An enormous crowd lore down buildings, did other damage, and flung several policemen and thousands of chairs and benches into the lake.

The plans to close down at, midnight and switch off the lights which were turned on two years ago with a ray from the star Arcturus were abandoned by the officials when it was found that 300.000 people were still in the grounds. Towards dawn they began to regret this course, for mobs of merrymakers, after consuming all the drinks they could lay their hands on, started to destroy everything within their reach. Women fainted and many injured people had to be taken to hospital. Popular indignation ran high when the dancers at some of the side-shows refused to appear after the audience had destroyed the decorations and fittings. The lifts running to the top of the 64storev observation tower of the overhead railway were stopped when empty bottles flung by passengers began to shower down. ,

The damage was not all done by men, for women forced their way into the Agricultural Buildings and-carried off a number of valuable plans. The total number of visitors in the two seasons during which the Pair had been opened reached nearly 39,001,000. The 1.6 CCO.OCuth visitor this year entered the grounds at 1.10 a.m. Bbe was a little grey-lmired widow, Mrs.'Helen Reid, of Chicago.

Tt, is estimated that this £10.000.000 Fa-ir lias ‘brought nearly £200,000,000 worth of business into Chicago.